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March 9, 2011

Liza’s Underware

By now, everyone is aware of OpenType and its two main benefits; cross-platform compatibility, and its ability to support widely expanded character sets and layout features. It’s the second one that we want to spotlight here, to show you the real power of the format. Additionally, it has come to our attention that some designers might not know why in some releases it is worth the extra cost. A perfect example of this is the difference between Underware’s Liza Pro and Liza Standard releases.

If you compare the two prices (single weights) you will see that Liza Std is $60, while Liza Pro is $90. The fonts may appear to be identical at a glance, but in reality they are completely different. The differences lie in the details and the way they function. The power of Liza Pro comes from the mad chops that the Dutch gangsters at Underware put into its execution, allowing different combinations to behave in remarkably different ways–almost as if the font understands what you want before you do. The numbers tell the tale: Liza Std only has 387 glyphs, while Liza Pro has more than three times that, at 1,105 glyphs. If you need a standard, simple script font, than Liza Std will do you just fine. But if you want a dynamic script that is full of life and potential, Liza Pro is more than worth the few extra ducats. Watch the video above, and the difference quickly becomes apparent. You will notice Liza Pro (top) will “intelligently” change and adjust to the best visual flow of your letter combinations, whereas Liza Std, while still beautiful, is preset in its ways.

All of the OpenType features shown in the video above can be executed in any major graphic application like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.